White Things!

[Kain Prestwood]

What are these little white bugs (lavae of some sort?) I keep finding in my T's tanks



There usually found around the water dish.

I use compost (lime and chemical free) and vermiculite as a substrate.

Getting abit concerned now.

Kain

[Richard Simmonds]

Kain, looks like u have mites to me, i might be wrong, but thats what they look like to me.

[Kain Prestwood]

Oh great

Seem to be constantly having bad luck

Kain

[Richard Simmonds]

Use some woodlice in your tanks, seems to be working for me.

[Richard Gallon]

They are springtails - totally harmless to tarantulas.

If they bother you simply dry the tank out a bit (they die very quickly in dry environments).

Richard

[Kain Prestwood]

Thanks Richard, as long as there harmless to the T's then I don't mind.

I was worried it was something that would effect them

Cheers

Kain

[Colin D Wilson]

Yep...... springtails, from too damp an area...no need to worry.
As Richard says just dry the whole environment out and they'll be gone in a jiffy.
Woodlice will keep the tank a little cleaner eating faeces, prey remains and mite / bug eggs. 1 wood louse for every 4 square inches of floor space has worked fine for me for years.

[Richard Simmonds]

Colin where do these springtails come from?

[Colin D Wilson]

As your sustrate is lime and chemical free, there's no natural insectaside in it to prevent the development of eggs from springtails, mites etc.
next time you do a substrate change, microwave it for a while. I usually microwave half a litre of sub for about 45 seconds, (add 30 secs for every extra half litre) that seems to do the trick.
if you're using cork bark or wood for decoration a good trick is to freeze it for 24 hrs (micro waving it sometimes splits wood and cork bark pops and cracks if its too long in the microwave,).